Air-ground training improves combat effectiveness, reduce fratricide

  • Published
  • By Sean Deam
  • Joint Fires Integration and Interoperability Team
EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. --  The Air Force and Army will team up for an air-to-ground training initiative. This innovative training will immediately impact ongoing combat operations in Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom.

The Brigade Combat Team-level Air-Ground Integration training will increase combat effectiveness while reducing the potential of fratricide for all forces.

"The need to better synchronize our Air-Ground Integration training at the Brigade Combat Team level is a fundamental requirement to succeed on the complex battlefield that our men and women operate in today in Iraq and Afghanistan," said Army Maj. Thomas Hansbarger, BCT A-GI project lead for U.S. Joint Forces Command's Joint Fires Integration and Interoperability Team. "Improvements in pre-deployment air-ground training will enhance our overall combat effectiveness as a joint and coalition team, and reduce the potential of fratricide and collateral damage...it's that basic, and that important to our warfighters and coalition partners."

Senior service military leaders have recognized the importance of improving A-GI training prior to actual execution of these complex tasks on the battlefield.

"We must develop a realistic, joint integrated air-to-ground training capability at home station and at the combat training centers for both planning and execution in order to improve application of joint fires and effects at the Brigade Combat Team level and below," said Army Gen. William Wallace, Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) commander.

The core of this initiative and training concept will bring services, schools, CTCs and units together in order to train to fight jointly -- just as they do in combat.

The BCT A-GI team consists primarily of TRADOC Joint Air Ground Office, Air Combat Command Joint Air Ground Division, the Army Joint Support Team and the Joint Fires Integration and Interoperability Team. This team has developed a training plan that emphasizes key individual skills, develops interdependent, joint training objectives, integrates robust air-ground training at the BCT's home station, and implements collaborative training scenarios at CTCs and ACC Green Flag exercises. The BCT A-GI concept supports this by conducting formal individual training at the BCT's home station utilizing Mobile Training Teams that provide air-ground subject matter experts during training development and execution, and resources joint assets for home station collective training and CTC rotations.

The identified BCT will receive this enhanced, focused training at the earliest stages of their Army Force Generation cycle. This means that the BCT will return from their previous in-theater deployment, re-fit and prepare for training which will support their next deployment cycle. Integrating the BCT A-GI concept early in the ARFORGEN cycle allows the BCT to conduct the recommended individual, staff, section and collective training early enough to impact and embed A-GI fundamentals prior to their next deployment in-theater.

The BCT A-GI concept is designed to augment a brigade training plan by integrating joint concepts into existing training events. It is not designed to direct additional events or to impose additional requirements on the BCT in order to facilitate joint training. The BCT commander determines when, where, and to what extent joint concepts are incorporated into the unit's training plan. Flexibility is key when developing Joint, interdependent training objectives and integrating joint concepts into existing training, and adjusted to meet inevitable changes to the overall BCT training schedules.

An additional key dynamic of BCT A-GI is the development of joint and interdependent training objectives. This process will be a collaborative effort between the participating BCT, Air Support Operations Squadron and Air Force and Army flying units. Joint training objectives will provide training events to help accomplish service participant's goals. Since objectives will be interdependent, training events will develop ensuring every unit's inputs and actions are necessary for a successful event. The key is coordinating and synchronizing service training objectives early in the planning cycle.

Throughout the BCT A-GI concept, JFIIT will conduct assessments of each training event. These assessments will occur during home station training and CTC rotations. The assessments will focus primarily on the training venues and the ability to create a realistic, joint training environment. Additionally, assessments measure each unit's improvement in air-ground integration to determine the efficacy of the training. The final assessment of the BCT A-GI concept is conducted by the Center for Army Lessons Learned while the BCT conduct combat operations. Based on the assessments and feedback, the BCT A-GI team will collaborate on a report chronicling the entire concept. While the final report won't detail the unit's strengths and weaknesses, it will determine if the BCT A-GI concept is successful at creating a joint training environment and if it increased the unit's ability to conduct joint air-to-ground operations.

The BCT A-GI concept is a proactive, dynamic initiative that will enable participating service organizations to train on leveraging available joint capabilities. This benefits the individual service organization and the U.S. military as a whole. The recommendations resulting from these assessments will propose a template for future pre-deployment air-ground training that will ultimately enhance combat effectiveness and reduce fratricide as well as collateral damage on the battlefield.

Joint operations are a necessity in today's operating environment and the future requirement for interoperability will only increase. The first BCT A-GI training event is Nov. 5 through 23 at National Training Center in Ft. Irwin, Calif., and involves maneuver units from the 4th Infantry Division at Ft. Hood, Texas.